Courtesy: CSA/X
In the second T20I of the four-match series at the St George’s Park in Gqeberha, the Indian batting lineup suffered an early collapse as the South Africa fast bowlers utilised the helpful conditions exceptionally well. The centurion of the first match Sanju Samson walked back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers in the first over, and shortly after, his opening partner Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav lost their wickets for four runs each.
With that, the decision from captain Aiden Markram of South Africa, to put the visitors into batting first, worked out perfectly well. At the close of the first power play stage, India reached 34/3 with Tilak Varma and Axar Patel trying to rescue the team’s innings after the likes of Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, and Andile Simelane picked up a wicket each within the first four overs of the opposition’s innings.
If India are unable to put a competitive total on the board in the second T20I, allowing South Africa to walk away with a win, then it will be just their second loss in the shortest format of the game in the year 2024. In their 23 T20I matches in the last 11 months, India have earned 22 wins, which includes their T20 World Cup final victory over South Africa.
Here are some of the fan reactions after India suffered early collapse against South Africa in second T20I:
Check out the playing XIs of India and South Africa for the second T20I at the St George’s Park in Gqeberha:
India: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Varun Chakravarthy
South Africa: Ryan Rickelton, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram (c), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter
